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Kate O’Neill: My Dad, the Ultimate Sports Fan
(Elite Athlete Blog - Entry 10)

Posted June 9th, 2008 at 1:30 PM by Kate O'Neill

Section: Elite Athlete Blogs, Kate O'Neill

Hi, this is my blog in TFS’s Elite Athlete Blog Series. Bookmark kateoneill.thefinalsprint.com and check back every other Monday for my latest entry as I strive for the 2008 Summer Olympics!

I ended my blog four weeks ago by talking about my mother’s support of my running. With Father’s Day approaching, my dad needs a proper tribute! My dad has been equally supportive, but in a different way. Like my mom, he never ran competitively. He has, however, played sports for his whole life. Throughout my childhood, I had the chance to see his pure enjoyment of all sports. By watching him, I saw the importance he placed on participating in athletic endeavors at any level and the importance of learning to work with a team. These lessons did not translate into success in any of the sports that he actually played (as I have mentioned in past blogs, I was terrible at any sport involving a ball), but they did apply to running.

My dad’s best sport was baseball. My grandmother liked to tell people that he introduced bunting to the baseball team in our town. I am not sure if this is true, but she said that every time he went up to bat, a whisper would go through the crowds of people asking, “Is he going to bunt this time?” When my sister and I played softball from the ages of 9 to 12, he coached our shortcake softball team. We did not ever enjoy the game as much as he did. (Now that I think about it, we weren’t allowed to bunt. Perhaps if we had been able to master this trick, we might have had more success! Probably not….) He also played football and basketball, but I never did well in those sports either. In the former sport for obvious reasons and the latter due to my lack of coordination.

When I was growing up, he no longer competed in any of these sports, but he was still the ultimate sports fan. He coached baseball and golf at my high school for a number of years, and worked as a referee at basketball games and as an umpire at softball games. His devotion to the Boston Red Sox, the New England Patriots, the Boston Celtics, and Notre Dame football (his alma mater) runs deep. When one of these teams is playing, he cannot relax until the game is officially over, no matter what the score is. After watching the Red Sox in the 1986 World Series, he knows that anything can happen in the final moments of a game.

- Kate

Be sure to check back on Monday, June 23, 2008 for Kate’s latest entry at: http://kateoneill.thefinalsprint.com/

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